Case 002 Witnesses, experts and Civil Parties

Witnesses, experts and Civil Parties who have appeared in Case 002. Click on photo for larger version.

Mrs. HIN Sotheany

Ms. Hin Sotheany, the compiler of the list of prisoners at S-21, spent 24 months from April 2014 to March 2016. The list was prepared by her, an analytical consultant under the management of Hiroto Fujiwara, head of the analysis team.

Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 – 9 January 2017
Mr. VOEUN Vuthy

Voeun Vuthy was born on December 5, 1973 in Siem Reap. He lost his father and other five member of his family to the regime.

He presently works for the Ministry of Fine Arts. He studied anthropology at the University of Fine Arts and then studied in Japan, Germany and Italy. He also studied at University of Hawaii in bone conversation and remains. He was involved in research regarding archeology relating to human bones in 1988. Lately, he conducted research regarding bone remains at Choeung Ek and Kraing Tang Chan, as well as Prasat Padei and Kok Prech. He has many projects, one of which was the conservation of the victim remains with the aim to maintain the evidence available with those victims' remains in order to preserve and to record the history that happened between 1975 to 1979. Another purpose was to record the remains of the marks on those victims' bones to show them about the brutality that were inflicted upon them. The process of conservation of the victims' bones as well as the analysis involves 12 stages, which begin with studying marks and traces and finally conserving the bones so they don’t decay.

Furthermore, they interviewed people who worked at the sites during the regime and any possible witnesses. Only at Kra Tanh Chan they preserved 6,426 craniums. His studies concluded that victims died from shackling, hit by clubs in the head, poisoned by chemicals and ear perforation.

Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 – 13 December 2016, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 – 14 December 2016
Mr. Stephen John MORRIS

The expert was born in 1949. He is an Australian researcher, writer and teacher in international politics and history. He has studied and written on the relations between Vietnam and Cambodia during this period. He tried to understand why these two former allies country came into a military conflict.

To him, it was different Communists who misunderstood the situation. He explained that the behavior of the Vietnamese was aimed at creating one space with one ethnicity, called Indochina Federation. He added that imperialism was deeply rooted in the Vietnamese elite. The Vietnamese always wanted to have control in Cambodia, but Pol Pot’s policies gave them an apparent license to intervene and eliminate Cambodia’s independence. The Vietnamese used Cambodians who retreated to Vietnam in 1954 to re-infiltrate in order to control Cambodian communism. He said that the concept of the “enemy” was very central to these movements. According to him as Stalin had created a construct in which his rivals were seen as agent of foreign powers, Pol Pot created a narrative in which the enemies from within were KTB or CIA agents. It was a period of paranoia and personality cults. He described DK as a conspiratorial organization. Morris recounted that in April 1977, DK attacked a Vietnamese village causing a substantial number of civilian casualties. He said it was irrational, because Cambodia was much weaker than Vietnam. Indeed there was a disparity of strength between both sides.

The purges and terror campaigns that took place after 1975 were directed against loyal members of the KR. This showed, he said, paranoia and weakness in relation to the conflict with Vietnam. KR were against the Soviet Union and sympathetic to China until 1976.

Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 – 19 October 2016, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 – 20 October 2016, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 – 18 October 2016
Ms. LEVINE Peggy

The Australian-American academic Peg LeVine was born in 1952. She is a registered clinical psychologist, an anthropologist with a focus on medical anthropology, a professor and a research affiliate at the Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research in Los Angeles.

She learned about the Cambodian conflict in 1980 when she was working in a mental health center, where many Cambodian refugees were. She began her research in 1997 on the specific topic of weddings under the Democratic Kampuchea. She explained that it was a really hard work to stay neutral with that kind of topic. For  example, before the expression “forced marriage” was used before the Courts, no one said anything  about it but preferred the expression “arranged marriage.” The expert chose to use the expression “conscripted marriage.” She explained that the marriages were thought of as if they were providing a service to the future of their country. For her, it was to serve Angkar, a question of loyalty. The definition of forced marriage in a legal view is that one under violence or threat of violence and when people get married not with their free will. Her investigations showed that only fewer than ten per cent were threatened to death if they didn’t accept to marry someone. She stated that perception of weddings depended on perception of Angkar. She stated that the ceremony was different according to leaders. Lack of rituals disturbed many people.

Regarding the consummation of marriage, she said that no couple stated that they were forced to do it or monitored, it was expected that people would consummate their marriage in the first three days. She pointed out that we expect the same from couples in every country. She said that she couldn’t define forced marriage but she rejected using this to define marriages under Khmer Rouge. She explained that she established the authenticity of weddings through of the perception of people.

Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 – 10 October 2016, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 – 11 October 2016, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 – 12 October 2016
Ms. Kasumi Nakagawa

She was an expert witness testifying on forced marriage during the Khmer Rouge period. She first became interested in how the Khmer Rouge impacted women during her undergrad, and has conducted research on gender and women, particularly forced marriage, in Cambodia since 2006.

Her research focused on the period prior to the KR and during. Marriage, she found, was a communal and family matter in which males had more decision power and females had almost none. Although she acknowledged women were sometimes consulted during the Khmer Rouge period, she did not think genuine consent could be given. As well as this, before the Khmer Rouge marriage was organized by families and no interaction with the authorities was needed – this changed under the KR. She did not have enough evidence to confirm whether or not there was a top-down policy to organize forced marriages.

The greatest harm of forced marriages, she said, was the destruction of the safety net inherent in marriages: men and women lost the protection of their families because they were separated from both their families and their new spouses. The mother of the bride suffered heavily because it was her responsibility to organize the marriage and she was unable to do so.

Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 – 14 September 2016, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 – 13 September 2016
Henri Locard

Mr. Henri Locard provided 4 days of expert testimony at the Trial Chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). He is a currently a volunteer at the history department at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. He began researching Democratic Kampuchea soon after his return to Cambodia in 1989 when his friend, Moeung Sonn, requested his assistance to write his biography. Shortly thereafter, he began a PhD on the ideology and political system of the Khmer Rouge. Over the following years he published a number of books including “Pol Pot’s Little Red Book: The Sayings of Angkar”/” Petit livre rouge de Pol Pot” which was discussed during the course of his testimony. Locard explained his use of secondary sources, including publications by David Chandler and Ben Kiernan, and primary sources from interviews, “hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands” for which he took notes. He stated his research was “grassroots” within the provinces and communes – a dialogue of ordinary people.

During this time he told the Court he collected slogans for his personal interest. Over the course of his research, he realised if these slogans were organised into themes – Maoist slogans, the “hunt for enemies”, slogans about work, around the death of the individual or the collective life – that the ideology and the ways of thinking of the Khmer Rouge could be revealed. Locard stated that he approached his research of Democratic Kampuchea from the history of the Cold War. He researched regimes similar in ideology including Vietnam, Communist Vietnam, Communist China, the Soviet Union and North Korea.

He had a particular focus on China, as he believed the regime was largely modelled on China; that the regime was “a combination of the Great Leap Forward and counterrevolution.” Locard spoke of his interest in the smaller provincial prisons, for which records are rare. He explained that in 1975-1976 most prisoners were those of the old regime – educated people connected with the Republican regime and the Sihanouk regime. During 1977-1978, the prisoners were from all classes and more and more from within the ranks of the revolution, the civilians and the military. Locard explained that was a major prison for each region, from the evidence he found, there were about 150 districts. Every district had a prison, and some districts had several, particularly those located closer to the centre.

He described the tiers of prisons – in the first tier were those that had less than 100 prisoners where there was one person asking the questions, interrogating and writing biographies. In the district prison there were more inmates. There were at least three people that conducted the interrogations – one who asks questions, one who writes in the notebooks and one who “hits/ threatens to hit.” In larger prisons, inmates may be into the hundreds, up to 1000, as was the case for Siem Reap Prison.

Locard stated that the turnover was quite rapid with people interrogated over one to three days as room had to be made for new inmates. People usually did not survive more than three months; the average would be 3-4 weeks. Locard stated that the mode of interrogation and torture was similar to other Communist regimes. The system was therefore highly centralized, there was only vertical communication. Locard stated that when the Vietnamese came in, there were abundant archives in all of the security centres on the 7 January 1979. He stated that they disappeared as the people’s main concern was to survive at the end of the regime. Locard stated that in some locations, they were systematically destroyed, as Locard believed to have occurred in Tia Siem’s district.

Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 – 28 July 2016, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 – 29 July 2016, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 – 01 August 2016, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 – 02 August 2016
Mr. Ysa Osman

45 years of age at the time of his testimony, Mr. Ysa Osman appears before the Trial Chamber to provide evidence accrued during his years of research performed for the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DCCAM). The author of two books relating to the period of Democratic Kampuchea, titled Oukoubah, and another titled Cham Rebellion, along with several news and magazine articles, Mr. Ysa Osman offers the court valuable testimony, particularly relating to the experience of the Cham people during the Khmer Rouge regime. A Cham himself, Mr. Ysa Osman tells the court that he lost most of his family during the years 1975-1979. His testimony provides insight into various aspects of Cham culture, including social hierarchy within the Cham communities. Testimony of the expert also recalls alleged policies implemented by the Khmer Rouge that allegedly dictated Cham people to renounce their culture and religion. The expert  said impacts of KR policy during the DK  regime are noted to have been severe, and has affected Cham culture to this day. Furthermore, during testimony the expert reveals the history of the Cham people, including the Champa kingdom, and how this historical relationship figures in the context of Democratic Kampuchea. 

Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 – 10 February 2016, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 – 23 March 2016, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 – 24 March 2016, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 – 09 February 2016
HINTON Alexander Laban

The Expert Witness will be examined on: the history of the CPK; the origins and evolution of CPK policies
towards the Vietnamese and Buddhists; the implementation and evolution of these policies during the DK period; use of CPK and DK propaganda and language generally in the context of genocidal violence; perpetrator motivations; and the operation of S-21 Security Centre.

Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 – 14 March 2016, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 – 15 March 2016, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 – 16 March 2016, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 – 17 March 2016
Ms. Elizabeth Becker

Ms. Becker is a former journalist with the Washington Post and the New York Times and she is the author of the book "When the war was over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution". She was one of only two western journalist who was allowed to visit Democratoc Kampuchea. During her visit in December 1978 she interviewed Pol Pot and Ieng Sary.

Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 - 9 February 2015, [Corrected 1] Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 - 10 February 2015, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 - 11 February 2015
Dr. CHAN Kin Ming, Medical Expert

Dr. CHAN Kin Ming is a Singaporean geriatrician appointed by the Trial Chamber as medical expert to assess NUON Chea and KHIEU Samphan

Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 - 23 January 2015
Dr. HUOT Lina, Medical Expert

Dr. HUOT Lina is a psychiatrist appointed by the Trial Chamber as medical expert to assess NUON Chea and KHIEU Samphan

Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002/02 - 23 January 2015
Mr. Stephen Heder

Mr. Heder is an American scholar who was called to testify about the books he has authored and interviews he has conducted with the Accused and other cadres relevant to the regime of Democratic Kampuchea.

He previously worked in the ECCC’s offices of the Co-Prosecutors and then of the Co-Investigating Judges. Since the Khmer Republic period in the early 1970s, he had worked as a journalist and researcher in Cambodia, and continued to cover Cambodia even after he left the country in April 1975. Seven Candidates for Prosecution: Accountability for the Crimes of the Khmer Rouge.

Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002 - 17 July 2013, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002 - 16 July 2013, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002 - 15 July 2013, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002 - 11 July 2013, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002 - 10 July 2013, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002 - 09 July 2013, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002 - 18 July 2013
Dr. CHHIM Sotheara

Dr. CHHIM Sotheara provided expert testimony about his mental health work with Khmer Rouge survivors.

Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002 - 05 June 2013, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002 - 06 June 2013
Mr. Philip Short

M. Philip Short est un auteur et journaliste britannique. Il est l'auteur du livre "Pol Pot : Histoire d'un cauchemar".

Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002 - 08 May 2013, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002 - 07 May 2013, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002 - 06 May 2013, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002 - 09 May 2013, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002 - 07 May 2013, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002 - 09 May 2013, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002 - 07 May 2013, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002 - 09 May 2013
Dr. Seena Fazel

Dr. Seena Fazel (Unted Kingdom), Forensic Psychiatrist,was appointed as one of the experts to examine Nuon Chea's fitness to stand trial.

Transcript of hearing on Nuon Chea's fitness to stand trial - 25 March 2013
Professor John Campbell

Professor Campbell was appointed as and expert to assess the current medical condition and treatment of Ieng Sary.

Transcript of hearing on accused IENG Sary's fitness to stand trial – Trial day 129, Transcript of hearing on Nuon Chea's fitness to stand trial - 25 March 2013
Professor David Chandler

David Chandler is an Emeritus Professor at Monash University, and holds degrees from Harvard, Yale and Michigan Universities.He has authored a number of books relating to the Democratic Kampuchea period and S-21 and was called as an expert in Case 001. Unlike that case, where Professor Chandler testified at length regarding the day-to-day operations of S-21, his testimony in Case 002/01 was instead sought principally for an analysis of the policies that established S-21 and the broad purpose and function of security centres (and S-21 in particular) in Democratic Kampuchea.

[Corrected 1] Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002 - Trial Day 84, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002 - Trial Day 83, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002 - Trial Day 82, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002 - Trial Day 81, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002 - Trial Day 80, Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002 - Trial Day 79
Dr. LIM Sivutha

Dr. Lim is a medical doctor in the emergency section at the Khmer Soviet Friendship hospital.

Transcript of hearing on the substance in Case 002 - Trial Day 63, Transcript of the hearing of substance in Case 002 - Trial day 110
Mr. Stephane Hessel

Stephane Hessel, aged 91, a former French resistance fighter who was deported to a Nazi concentration camp, was called by the Defense in order to contribute as an expert on the issue of forgiveness. After the war, he took part in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 alongside Rene Cassin and worked toward French-German reconciliation in post-war Europe. As an expert, Mr. Hessel told the Trial Chamber that it is essential not to expect forgiveness from the victims while moving toward reconciliation at the national level. He underlined that it is a right of the victims to reject any type of forgiveness after the judgment. He elaborated on the concept of reconciliation, which he defined not as forgiveness of the victims, but as the process of building up a peaceful nation, which can only be done once impunity ends. He argued that the sine qua non condition for reconciliation is that all facts must be known: "the concept of reconciliation should go hand in hand with the concept of truth". 

Transcript of Proceedings - “DUCH” Trial (Trial Day 71)
Mr. Raoul Marc Jennar

Raoul Marc Jennar, 63, a consultant in the field of international relations, was called to testify as an expert on issues relating to practical and theoretical foundations and operations of the Democratic Kampuchea (DK) regime of terror. During his testimony, Mr. Jennar identified three foundations of terror as a DK method of government. First, he described the culture of violence in Cambodia, which was internally sustained by the violent repression of opposition since the country's independence in 1953 and externally exacerbated by the American bombings. Second, he pointed out the political culture of the DK leaders: strongly influenced by a Bolshevik conception and a Stalinist practice of communism, they adopted an iron discipline and eliminated doubtful elements. Third, Raoul Jennar mentioned the specificities of Pol Pot's unique interpretation of the Marxist-Leninist doctrine accentuated state terrorism.  Mr. Jennar told the Trial Chamber that he accepted the statement of the Accused as being simultaneously "a servant and a hostage" of the Khmer Rouge system, as he considered that nobody under such a regime disposed of a margin for maneuver . He further argued that the leaders at the highest level should shoulder, first and foremost, the greatest responsibility. He underlined the existence of other DK security centers, arguing that the directors of the centers in which a higher number of victims were killed also qualified as those "most responsible" for DK crimes.

Transcript of Proceedings 14 September 2009- “DUCH” Trial (Trial Day 70)
Justice Richard Joseph Goldstone

Justice Richard Goldstone, 70, visiting professor of law at Frodham University, was called as an expert to testify on issues relating to guilty pleas in international criminal tribunals. Justice Goldstone told the Trial Chamber that three important aspects were to be taken into account when determining the sentence: the nature of the crime, the interest of victims, and the interests of society. For the more general interests of society, he said that "due importance must be given to the importance of an open and sincere admission of guilt, and especially if itís accompanied by a genuine apology to the victims and expressions of remorse". Justice Goldstone submitted that there were three important aspects of an acceptance of guilt and responsibility. First, he pointed out that the public acknowledgment of the gravity of the crimes by an official source is important for the victims. Second, he described that an acceptance of guilt was an essential element in ending fabricated denial. Third, he stated that an acknowledgment of guilt could influence others to come before the Tribunal and similarly admit their responsibility. During his testimony, he underlined the fact that any question of mitigation must be "secondary to the seriousness of the crimes committed and the interest of the victims."

Transcript of Proceedings - “DUCH” Trial (Trial Day 70)
Mr. Ka Sunbaunat

Ka Sunbaunat, 56, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Royal Phnom Penh University, was called as an expert to present a psychological assessment of the Accused conducted in 2008 with an update in August 2009.

The experts testified that the Accused does not present any indication of mental or psychological disorder. They described him as a "dutiful person, readily influenced by [and] responding well to strong leadership", with a "need for affiliation, and for recognition and acknowledgement by his superiors". Marxist ideology satisfied his need for certainty and was subsequently replaced by Christianity.They described his psychological behavior as characterized by obsessional traits, pragmatic and mathematical reasoning, disempathy, and alexithymia. They noted that the Accused was able to construct powerful defence mechanisms insulating him from emotional reactions and inner conflicts created by his external reality, mechanisms which they described as ultimately enabling him to nurture his own family whilst overseeing the deaths of children at S-21. However, the experts also perceived the Accused's greater capacity for self-reflection regarding his life and actions as the investigation and trial progressed.The experts used a "geopolitical" method of assessment which analyses the articulation of both personal and collective history that was developed by Francoise Sironi-Guilbaud in her practice.

During his testimony, Ka Sunbaunat highlighted the specific features of the Cambodian cultural context relevant to their assessment.Both experts stated that they believed that the Accused could be rehabilitated and reintegrated into society based on his past experiences and his present condition

Transcript of proceeding "DUCH" Trial - 31 August 2009, Transcript of proceeding "DUCH" Trial - 01 September 2009
Ms. Francoise Sironi-Guilbaud

Francoise Sironi-Guilbaud, 51, Professor of Psychology at University of Paris 8, was called as an expert to present a psychological assessment of the Accused conducted in 2008 with an update in August 2009.

The experts testified that the Accused does not present any indication of mental or psychological disorder. They described him as a ìdutiful person, readily influenced by [and] responding well to strong leadershipî, with a ìneed for affiliation, and for recognition and acknowledgement by his superiors.î Marxist ideology satisfied his need for certainty and was subsequently replaced by Christianity.They described his psychological behavior as characterized by obsessional traits, pragmatic and mathematical reasoning, disempathy, and alexithymia. They noted that the Accused was able to construct powerful defence mechanisms insulating him from emotional reactions and inner conflicts created by his external reality, mechanisms which they described as ultimately enabling him to nurture his own family whilst overseeing the deaths of children at S-21. However, the experts also perceived the Accusedís greater capacity for self-reflection regarding his life and actions as the investigation and trial progressed. The experts used a "geopolitical" method of assessment which analyses the articulation of both personal and collective history that was developed by Francoise Sironi-Guilbaud in her practice.

In order to understand the Accused, she argued, it was necessary to take into account the weight of political, economical, historical, and cultural factors on his personality. Both experts stated that they believed that the Accused could be rehabilitated and reintegrated into society based on his past experiences and his present condition.

Transcript of Proceedings - “DUCH” Trial (Trial Day 67), Transcript of Proceedings - “DUCH” Trial (Trial Day 68)
Chhim Sotheara

Dr. Chhim, 41, a psychologist and director of Cambodia TPO, was called to testify as an expert on the psychological impact of the Khmer Rouge regime.

He detailed the consequences regarding the mental and physical condition of family members of direct victims of S-21 and the nature of the trauma resulting from the knowledge of a relative's death. In addition to underlining the specificity of familial relationships within Cambodian culture, Dr. Chhim told the Trial Chamber that 40% of Cambodians over 18 years old have experienced or encountered symptoms of post-traumatic stress. He explained the possibility of trauma transmission to the next generation (secondary trauma), and detailed factors amplifying trauma such as poverty, daily interactions with perpetrators, or the absence of adequate mental health services. Dr. Chhim pointed out important factors for the healing of victims such as the disclosure of truth, justice, and the ability to forgive. He argued that the psychological healing of victims depends on the honesty and sincerity of the accused and the former leaders of Democratic Kampuchea.

He further analysed the role of the ECCC in relieving victimsí psychological suffering, arguing that the tribunal can help deliver symbolic justice and reveal the truth. Although the risk of re-experiencing traumatic events is increased by the tribunal, if adequate help is provided, the tribunal can help victims to face their trauma. 

Transcript of proceeding "DUCH" Trial - 25 August 2009
Professor David Chandler

David Chandler is an Emeritus Professor at Monash University, and holds degrees from Harvard, Yale and Michigan Universities.

He has authored a number of books relating to the Democratic Kampuchea period and S-21 and was called as an expert in Case 001. Unlike that case, where Professor Chandler testified at length regarding the day-to-day operations of S-21, his testimony in Case 002/01 was instead sought principally for an analysis of the policies that established S-21 and the broad purpose and function of security centres (and S-21 in particular) in Democratic Kampuchea.

Transcript of Proceedings - “DUCH” Trial (Trial Day 55)

Pagination